COOK
,
ARTHUR JAMES
(
1884
-
1931
),
miner and trade union leader
;
b. at
Wookey, Som.
,
22 Nov. 1884
, son of
ThomasCook
, a serving
soldier
. After leaving the elementary school he worked as a
farm labourer
. At 17 he was
preaching
with the
Baptists
; at 19 he went to work to the
Lewis Merthyr Colliery
,
Trehafod
, and developed extreme socialist views which led to his severing his relations with his religious denomination. He attended courses at the
Labour College
,
London
, and afterwards
conducted classes in economics
in the
Rhondda
. While working as a
collier
, he was elected
chairman
of the
Lewis Merthyr colliery lodge
of the
South Wales Miners’ Federation
and a
member of the executive committee of the union
; he was also elected a member of the
Rhondda Urban District Council
. In
1919
he was elected a
miners’ agent
and in
1921
became a
member of the executive committee
of the
Miners’ Federation of Great Britain
, becoming in
1924
its
national secretary
, a post which he held until his death.

His extreme views led to his conviction and imprisonment for three months in
April 1918
under the
Defence of the Realm Act
; he was also sentenced to two months’ imprisonment in
1921
for
inciting to unlawful assembly
. He played a leading part in the
general strike of 1926
and the prolonged
miners’ strike
which followed. His slogan
‘Not a penny off the pay, not a second on the day’
became the cry of the miners throughout the country.

In
1926
he visited
Moscow
and was warmly received. But his views changed considerably in the next few years and in
1929
he was deprived of the honorary membership of the
Moscow Soviet
and the honorary studentship of the
Mining Academy
granted to him during his visit.

He wrote a number of pamphlets such as
The Nine Days
,
The Miners' Next Step
,
Miners' Unofficial Reform
. He was a member of the
Coal Advisory Board to the Secretary for Mines
.

He endured great physical pain during his last years from an injury received whilst a
miner
and aggravated by an attack on him during the
1926 strike
. His
leg had to be amputated
, complications set in, and he d. at the
Manor House Hospital
,
London
,
2 Nov. 1931
.